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Jellybean

I started this blog as a way to vent, keep family and friends updated, and as a form of therapy to get through some rough spots in my life. It somehow turned into a cooking blog...complete with my rambling and ranting! Cooking, along with posting recipes, stories and pictures makes me happy so I hope you enjoy reading my posts and find a recipe or two to try!

Quotable Quote!

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it

~Eric Hoffer

Ultimately we have just one moral duty:to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves,more and more peace,and to reflect it towards others.And the more peace there is in us,the more peace there will also be in our troubled world

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April 12, 2010

Fajitas! Spanish Rice! Muy Delicioso!

I looooooove Mexican food. Whether it be authentic Mexican food (the real kind, that you get in Mexico), or my own version of Mexican food which is not very authentic sometimes but (I think) is still really good. It's good party food, it's comfort food. It can be a super easy go-to meal, or a complicated process (see my recipe for chicken enchiladas). It can be made healthy or artery clogging. Last night's version was not super authentic, but it was comforting, easy and partially healthy but mostly topped with cheese and sour cream. First, we will talk fajitas...

Fajitas
Mmmmmmmmm - fajitas. I always used to cook fajitas in a pan on the stove, until one day when I used leftover grilled kabob meat and veggies to get my fajita fix. Holy cow. 100% improvement. Obviously, if it is raining or freezing, I still do fajitas inside, but if at all possible - try this recipe on the grill. You will need soaked bamboo skewers or grill baskets if you do it this way.

*side note: you can use whatever kind of meat you want for fajitas, and whatever veggies too. I used chicken, onions, and peppers because I am boring, but I have also used pork, beef, shrimp, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, etc. Feel free to substitute or use whatever you have on hand!

Cut your chicken breasts into strips, and toss it with the juice from 1/2 of your lime, a generous handful of cilantro, 2/3 of your fajita seasonings and some juice from your jar of jalapenos. In a separate bowl/bag, toss your cut up peppers and onions with the juice from the other 1/2 of your lime, a small handful of cilantro, and the remaining fajita seasoning. Marinade both for a couple of hours, or however long it takes you to finish your bloody mary, relax on the patio furniture, start your grill and get it to the desired temp.

At this point, you can either skewer the meat/veggies (separately), or throw them into separate grill baskets. Steve (aka grill master) skewered the meat, and threw the veggies in a grill basket that had been coated with oil. He put the veggies on first, let them cook indirectly for a few minutes, and then put the chicken skewers on. While the food was a-cookin, I warmed up the shells. Once everything was done, we threw everything into serving bowls and loaded up our own fajitas and fixins! Delicious! See below for Spanish rice.

Spanish Rice:
When I first starting cooking (and I use the term "cooking" loosely), I would crave Spanish Rice but wouldn't know how to make it, so I would make minute rice, and then stir in jarred salsa and some Kraft singles. Super authentic, huh? Especially the Kraft singles. Barf. When I got my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, that was one of the first recipes I made, and even though I have it memorized and make my own version of it now, the book still falls open to that particular page (that page and the one for jambalaya) when I first take it out. Here is the BHG recipe (with my alterations, of course):